If We're the Best, Imagine the Worst

Mark-Elliott Lugo, who is an energetic-looking 59 years old, might well be the poster child in the San Diego public transit system’s campaign to increase ridership. Lugo has been taking San Diego buses for over 40 years. He has never owned a car. He’s doing quite well, thank you.

“I got the learner’s permit in high school,” Lugo tells me in a workroom at the Taylor Branch Library in Pacific Beach. He is the art curator for the San Diego Public Library. “The only time I’ve ever driven a car was when I had to take driver education in high school. I know that every young male in America, the first thing he wants is a car. It was probably my upbringing. My mother was from New York, a city that has excellent public transit.

“I was never interested in cars. In retrospect, I’m glad, because the money I’ve saved from never having a car has enabled me to buy a house. And I have a major art collection as well, a museum-quality collection. I’ve spent quite a lot of money on art but still not as much as a car would have been over the years. I’d rather have a piece of art than a car, anyway.”

But when Lugo learned recently that the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System was named the nation’s outstanding transit system, he nearly fell off his passenger seat. Lugo thinks local transit, with such notable exceptions as the trolley, has been getting worse year by year.

In July, the American Public Transportation Association in Washington, D.C., awarded San Diego for being the outstanding system among those in the United States and Canada that operate 30 million trips or more annually. A formal presentation will take place at the organization’s annual meeting in Orlando, Florida, this October. San Diego hosted the event last year.

I call Washington to learn what impressed the association about San Diego’s system. Spokeswoman Virginia Miller tells me that her organization picked a team of industry and transit-supplier experts to judge the competitors, who provided information in two major categories, quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative category was weighted two-thirds to one-third over the qualitative. In the quantitative category, over the past three years the San Diego transit system — both buses and trolley — performed especially well in ridership, up 12.3 percent; preventable accidents, down 14 percent; fare-box revenue, up 12 percent; and driver-related complaints, down 26.8 percent. In passengers per revenue hour, local officials claimed to be “up 200 percent on some routes where [the system] reallocated resources from low-productive to high-productive areas.”

The qualitative category contained nine subcategories more difficult to measure. They included financial management, safety, minority and women advancement, marketing, community relations, policy and administration, attendance and employee costs, operational efficiencies, and customer service. According to Miller, the American Public Transportation Association’s award is the most prestigious in the industry. “San Diegans should be especially proud of their transit system,” she says in closing our conversation. In an editorial on August 15, the Union-Tribune gushed over the award. As of this writing, the transit agency is running a flashing ad on SignOnSanDiego, the U-T’s website.

That Mark Lugo is not so proud of his transit system gets me to wondering. On my own regular transit trips, I talk to many people who greatly appreciate how the Metropolitan Transit System allows them to do without a car almost daily. On the other hand, complaints are legion. After KFMB-TV, Channel 8, announced the transit award on July 31, the station’s website received 23 comments, 21 of them critical or even expressing ridicule.

Are complaining riders and a proud Metropolitan Transit System two ships passing in the night? Among the competition’s subcategories, customer service sticks out as the two parties’ possible point of contact. I ask the transit system’s Rob Schupp if the award application included a customer-satisfaction survey. No, he said, but “many of the other factors that we found we are improving point to better customer service. Take greater ridership and safety,” he says, “or fewer customer complaints and greater on-time performance.”

Schupp says the transit system measures on-time performance by sending undercover people on buses and by global positioning technology. “All the buses that aren’t contracted out, which are about half those on the streets, have global positioning that allows them to be monitored.” According to figures the system provided, its on-time performance has improved by 6 percent over the past three years.

But late-running buses are one of Mark Lugo’s major gripes. His work requires him to visit artists all over San Diego County, and if he misses a connection due to his bus being late, his day might be ruined. Route 30 in and out of Pacific Beach is one he takes frequently, and it’s constantly late. “For one thing, the scheduling isn’t done right,” says Lugo, who notices that at many transfer points, one bus leaves at the same time another is arriving. That’s fine if your bus is right on time, but there are too many things that can happen on a trip to make a bus late. “Trouble that drivers have strapping in wheelchairs is one example, or buses get caught in intersections with long wait times at signals, such as in the Sports Arena area or the Golden Triangle, or people slow the buses while they struggle to slip dollar bills into the fare boxes. Many drivers are very good to wait a little longer for passengers that are arriving on another bus, but some of them are sticklers for leaving exactly on schedule,” says Lugo.

“And it takes too long to go anywhere,” he continues, citing the hour and a half he spends going from Pacific Beach to Ocean Beach. There are two ways to make the trip, says Lugo, Route 30 to Old Town, where Route 35 into Ocean Beach starts. Or Routes 8 and 9 go along Mission Bay Drive to Midway Drive, where passengers can transfer to the 35 turning onto West Point Loma Boulevard. “But you know it takes too long when a kid on a skateboard gets off the bus and beats it to the destination.”

Comments

No, he did not sue, and the bus was just starting off--not a high rate of speed--without the driver looking at the back door first--as they obviously should. My neighbor is a frail man in his late 60s.

"One would think that once the doors are open
that the bus wouldn't move."

Excellent point, Bob! One would think. You know the old buses had the flap doors passengers had to push open themselves--this is the kind of bus my neighbor fell on. The new buses with automatic back doors should do what you say--but don't.

The MTB is largely unresponsive to the mass transit commuters in SD. The MTB is essentially autonomous government organization which is does not answer to anyone. Let's remember that they are appointed. So they do not have to worry about being voted out of office.

If you look at the transit map (http://www.sdmts.com/Bus/Regional_Map.asp ) you will notice that the majority of routes are concentrated in the Clairemont/Kearney Mesa area and Downtown North Park areas. The really ironic thing is that Clairemont/ Kearney Mesa area has one of the largest concentration of workers yet it has the worst bus service. One reason why the buses are so late is because the routes are so long. Sorrento Valley also has little or no bus service as well.

The Coaster is another example of commuter waste. We have commuter trains that take people up and down the coast only in the mornings and afternoons. Yet the trains sit there all day long in downtown or by Camp Pendelton. It almost seems cheaper to build overhead lines for the trolley or let Amtrak handle the traffic. Or why isn't the locomotives being used to haul other types of freight during the day....?

A few years back the MTS said they were going to re-design the bus routes to improve service. So far there has been little improvement. If the MTB wants to improve service why not eliminate redundant bus routes that cover the same street. Why does the MTS need 2 or 3 buses on El Cajon blvd.

The trolley is a bit better, but it's largely a showboat project for the MTS. Back in the early 90's the MTB purchased some new trolleys so that they could go faster. This idea was that the tracks would be upgraded to allow for the increased speed. There was a pile of cement ties by Palomar street that sat there for 7 or 8 years. The MTS was going to hire a contracting company do install the cement railroad ties, but MTS union demanded union workers. So this is why the cement ties sat there.

The bus drivers union is a dirty little secret why the fares are so high now. Back in the mid 80's the bus drivers went into binding arbritration with the MTB for almost 10 years. During this time period the bus drivers recieved a automatic cost of living increase because they were a civil service union.

When I was in college I used to take the bus, but I discovered that it was actually faster commute by bike than ride the bus.

I was a "victim" of MTS. When my car was in the shop, I took the trolley and bus from Jack Murphy Stadium to Sorrento Valley. A 20 minute drive became a two hour (ONE WAY) ordeal. I was trapped in bus or trolley for 4-5 hours per day due to scheduling glitches between north and west and south and east connections. And forget about evenings or weekends when overtime was involved. This required limping three miles on a sprained ankle, or taking a cab so as not to have to punch in late. There used to be a toll free number to find out why your bus or trolley was running late, 1-800-SDCOMMUTE that has been replaced by 511, which can't be reached by a payphone.

I can't wait to see how much they raise the fares and cut back on routes for an encore.

I've used public transit on three continents, and San Diego's is some of the worst.

No posted schedules at bus stops.

Go to a typical stop and the only information you'll see is the number of the bus. Nothing else. You'll get no idea where it's going, or when it will arrive. Then, if you don't have exact change, you're out of luck.

Come on! This is the most basic thing possible and they cannot do it? What idiots...

Truly stupid routing.

Why don't the route planners connect where people live and where they work? It's not that difficult to figure out.

Instead they spend enormous sums to give a free gift to the Padres and Chargers, running special schedules to get people to games...but they cannot get you to work and back.

Contempt for the public.

I've attended public hearings on transit, and it was very clear that the officials were only doing it because they were required to hold some kind of meeting under the law.

They treated the members of the public with condescension, scorn or contempt, not listening or responding to anything said by those who took time off work to attend. At the end of the meetings, NOTHING was changed in their proposals. It was just a show.

Technological ignorance.

In many cities around the world you can buy fare via your mobile phone. Send a text message to a designated number and get on the bus. Simple, cheap to maintain, and no more exact-change hassles. Setting this system up is child's play and cheap to do.

Instead, the MTS has sunk unknown millions into the "Compass Card"...which simply does not work. (This is an article just begging to be written, READER stringers!)

Dangers to passengers.

I've seen the unprovoked attacks. Junior wannabe gangsters take over the back of the bus, and woe unto any who dare even look at them. You will be swarmed and beaten senseless -- or worse.

MTS puts ticket inspectors on the Trolley...because that's visible to tourists and politicians. But riding the bus, you'd better keep forward of the middle door and be careful, or you might end up smacked in the head at the least, kicked to the ground at worst.

You're on your own, and MTS simply doesn't care.

In summary,

MTS is a wasteful, arrogant, incompetent, and unanswerable waste of tax money. We'd be better off allowing private bus companies to create their own routes that actually serve the citizens of San Diego instead of pouring money into the "public" MTS rat-hole.

and no courtesy what so ever from their DRIVERS on the road. have you seen em pull up to a stop , leaving theyre backend out blocking the lane ? or just pull from the curb directly in front of u ?
and where eastbound el cajon boulevard goes from 3 lanes to 2 at fairmont ave . i seen a driver run a biciclist to the curb . and you know it was intentional cuz i asked him was that neccesary ? he replied well he was in the wrong lane. in my line of work i cant even express my frustration with traffic cuz the public calls it in and my supervisor jumps down my throat .

I was recently in Portland, Oregon, visiting a friend who moved there a few years ago and subsequently sold her car - she didn't need her car anymore, because Portland's bus system is so comprehensive and reliable.

Just one awesome feature of the Portland bus system: you can call in, enter a code for any bus stop you're interested in, and the system will immediately tell you exactly how many minutes it'll be until the next bus arrives at that stop.

I had a #30 bus driver
attempt to drop me this morning.
He pulled up to the curb on
gillman at UCSD and opened the doors
when people stood up to get off
he abruptly closed the doors
hit he accelerator sped forward and
then brake to a second stop..hoping
to drop people to their knees..
the supervisor is sitting outside
in a $60,000 car with a computer
in the passenger seat and never rides
the bus.

If San Diego has the nation's most outstanding transit system, then Norv Turner is the all-time world's smartest football coach, George Bush was the best president in history, Sarah Palin can see downtown Tokyo from her Alaska home, and the tooth fairy is now paying all kids a billion dollars per tooth.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks the transit system in SD county sucks. I've been to quite a few major metropolitan cities in my life and Sandy Eggo's is by far the worst system I've ever encountered.

The trolley is a joke. It pretty much goes nowhere and if you take it from inland to downtown on the weekend, good luck getting back if you want to stay downtown past 930pm. I made that mistake when I used to live out by Grossmont.

Dear SDaniels,
"My neighbor had one such driver, except the doors were open as he sped off. Said neighbor fell out as he tried to step down, and suffered quite a break to the leg"
Did your neighbor sue MTS?

I'm surprised that a bus can be traveling
at a high rate of speed with the doors open.
One would think that once the doors are open
that the bus wouldn't move.

"when people stood up to get off
he abruptly closed the doors
hit he accelerator sped forward"

Nice poetry, clockerbob! Too bad it has to lyricize about our fine transportation system. My neighbor had one such driver, except the doors were open as he sped off. Said neighbor fell out as he tried to step down, and suffered quite a break to the leg. So the union is getting drivers paid better? That would explain the return and stay of more experienced drivers--all I can muster of the positive for the SD Transit.

Oh, and this bears repeating: Let them compete with private car service, bonded and insured, as they do in bigger cities. Jitneys are a great way to go. Pay by zone, $1 to go all the way down a major thoroughfare.

im a driver, that transports students.
i inquired about work at mts during the summer a few years ago.
they wanna start you at minimum wage and give you the worst shifts .
thats not gonna attract the best candidats (< is that spelled rite)

They are hiring right now for apprentice linemen on the trolley system, you may try out for that, why, but be aware, you have to go to college classes as well. The pay is higher than minimum wage, in case anyone else is interested. Check the MTS site, for better and updated information.

Hey, why: If you work for the UCSD shuttle, I have a word of appreciation for ya. The career shuttle drivers are few and far between, as the uni likes to hire students, but I'm always glad to see an old hand on board, rather than some gum-chewing chiclet, cutting off drivers and blasting angst-pop :)

17 years driving passengers, 5 before that delivery trucks.
if u ever come upon a car doing 60 max (in the slow lane )
that would be me.
its nice driving wherever im going hardly having to tap my brakes cuz EVERYBODY else is doing 75 minnimum .
i love when someone passes within inches of my bumper changing lanes at the last possible micro second then catching up to them at the next cluster flub merge.
its the slow lane for sake.
and the folks that think its the other lane thats gonna be the MAGIC lane
that will not be slow. changing back n forth .
getting maybe 1 car length ahead or better when after they change ,
their lane they just got out of speeds up .
i aint mad at ya, i gave that up. it dont help.
so now i just cruise ......

i only got as far as 9th grade but did it 3 times,
english was the most boring.
so i didnt go to that class
i can read very well, just never understood the mechanics of writing .
does it read like a poem ?
i did get my GED at 30 years of age

i ended up at Garfield Independent Learning Center.
where they put the screw ups n pregnant
wow what a combination.
so the party continued.
show up at school
see who has what to contribute and leave .
Kojack the school cop would come looking for us the park.
party supplies and cool clothes arent free so i ended up in juvy then honor camp.
when i graduated to adult institutions , i could see i didnt belong there.
cuz i could read .
so i went to city college skills center (electronics )
before i was even finished General Dynamics hired me
7 days a week 12 hours a day. at minimum wage ($2.10 i think back then)
then my high school sweetheart(well she was in highschool) became preggers
so i never looked back n just kept working

whyigotahaveid...wow...i went to garfield too...i totally remember kojak lmao. perhaps our paths have crossed.
furthermore, i also obtained my GED at the age of 38. i am not ashamed of it..why should i be? got near perfect scores too. now i am a nurse making good money. so make fun of the GED education all you want. i love where i am.

well, i haven't read all the comments in this particular thread and so far i have seen kind words but there have been past comments talking about people's GED education and the jobs they had are all the could get because of it. we should all be proud to have done something with out lives. i know i am :)

I don't make fun of the GED at all-because it is an accomlishment and proves you have a basic level of intelligence.

But I do take issue with paying a blue collar, entry level job such as cop or FF $200K per year with that level of education. That is more than what general practioner doctors make. More than what lawyers make and more than what 95% of America makes and one of the major reasons this City, this County, this State and our Country are bankrupt.

8

a MTS supervisor driving a $60,000 car? funny, my dad was an MTS supervisor for years and the nicest car i ever saw was a taurus. $60,000? i doubt it.
My husband is a journeyman lineman, formerly with the trolley for years. then he discovered that benefits and rate of pay was better here in Seattle working on getting the brand new light rail system running.
six figure salary and a GED education.

I recieved my G.E.D. in one day after being out of school for almost 7 years. No pre-tests. No practice tests. Don't remember what I paid for it but had it done in about 8 hours. I recieved my high school diploma while in prison a year or two later.

why @ #26: Truly, you should keep all of this stuff together, like a long epic poem. This one could be called "screw ups n pregnant," another cool phrase you have come up with.

SP confessed: "This may be hard for you to believe because I am a college graduate-but I do not have a HS diploma or a GED."

It may be difficult for SurfP to understand that I nearly have a doctorate, also without HS diploma. The GED test is wicked-easy except for the math, so I dunno about bragging having not studied for it... I tell my students the very same thing, SP!

My husband is a journeyman lineman, formerly with the trolley for years. then he discovered that benefits and rate of pay was better here in Seattle working on getting the brand new light rail system running.
six figure salary and a GED education.

By magicsfive

I bet your husband developed some good skills after years of OTJ training, good for him.

But how can you handle Seattle? I lived in East Lansing for two years-which is second to Seattle in overcast days of any metro area in the US- and the grey sky for 4-5 months STRAIGHT was really hard.

43 Surfpup:

yes he did get a lot of OJT it's true. it isn't easy work, and i imaging the high rate of pay has to do with the fact that he works with high voltage electricity. and BTW he got his GED in prison, years and years ago.
you would not believe the weather we have had since moving here, in january. seriously, i might as well be in San Diego. i think maybe it has rained a total of 4 weeks and 4 minutes. otherwise glorious blue skies and warm weather. even now as i write this. but, sadly it is not San Diego. i am trying to adjust, still.
i know what you mean though, i worked at CMH before moving here and was heartbroken to leave there. I was thinking that seattle must be full of psychiatric facilities for me to work at, considering the SADS caused by the gloomy weather. i have yet to see the gloomy weather lol.

I had been out of school a number of years when I decided to take a couple of classes at City, just for s***s and giggles; you know how those catalogs come in the mail and one day you open it and go, hmmmm ... I picked two that looked easy and interested me. When I got there, they said, you have to take an entrance exam first. So went down there to the room, took the English part, seemed pretty easy, I got worried that I was the first one done. Person giving the exam seemed curious about it, too. Then we took the math part, and there was maybe two questions I could answer on the whole exam, so I zipped through that one, for the opposite reason, and sat there, first one done again. The guy takes my answer sheet and goes, "I'd be interested in knowing how you come out."

Week later, I get the results in the mail. English, top of the scale. I got an invitation to take any classes I wanted. Please come in and talk about Honors program.

Math, dreck. Remedial, at best. Start at Math 54, and work up from there. LOL!

Math, dreck. Remedial, at best. Start at Math 54, and work up from there. LOL!

By Fish

Funny you say that about math. I never had good math teachers, and for some reason the schools LOVE to put 50-100 kids in math classes at college. The is why I always thought math was way over rated (I still think that today). There was always a heavy emphasis on both math and English. The difference is this-you use English everyday-and I mean everyday. You speak with people several times everyday and you write-as here- several times per day also. So the need for English is a given.

How many times a day do you use an algebraic equation? How many times have you used an algebraic equation since HS? Probabl never- unless you are an engineer. So I stand behind the fact that math is highly over emphasized in HS. Unless you're going on to college and studying a math related science then there is no need for any of the math classes.

LMAO! I'm assuming the removed comment was from magicsfive to SP :-D I'm really not sure how people get their college degrees in prison but I'll assume it's the same way I was able to recieve my diploma. I behaved myself and when that parole program became available to me,I jumped on it. I only recieved my diploma because Wisconsin said I wouldn't be paroled early without it. I had to complete a drug/alcohol program,get my diploma,enroll in and graduate from an anger management class,enroll in and graduate from a victims of sexual abuse program and one other thing I forget.

Yeah, they had some clown teaching algebra 1 and 2 at City. Retired teacher coming back. He used to stand at the board, suddenly confused, and literally scratch his head. They made him do some remedial review of his own! Used to go by the office poor guy borrowed, and hear him listening to math tapes. Hee hehe. Gawd, he could be dead by now...

I was a brat, and used to intimidate my CC English teachers with my vast, native wit. Dr Sun, head of math dept, who taught algebra? Not so much. :)

Ooooh SD I remember an older teacher that one of the younger teachers came in to watch -- think someone told me later that they were trying to force the old guy out. He was okay as a teacher, but not the best. There were some great math teachers there! I still didn't learn a thing!!!

I can just imagine you intimidating English teachers, I know I would be, if I was your teacher!! Must say there were some great ones there. Altogether, I didn't have too many bad ones, though. Maybe I was lucky.

Oh I will tell you a story. There was this girl in one of my classes, really smart and a writer, think she just needed one credit to get her degree, so she was taking Western Civilization; I was taking the class for fun. The teacher was South Korean. Anyway, this girl had gotten a bad grade from him on a paper, and also he had made a remark to her that she didn't like. So he wasn't a favorite. She and I were talking outside class and I mentioned to her that every lecture he always managed to mix sex into the subject. She looked at me all surprised. I said, yeah, don't you remember blah blah, and I gave her examples. She had never noticed, apparently. So we go back in class and he starts to lecture and sure enough, he throws in something having to do with sex. She turned around and looked at me and we both started laughing.

Hmm, sounds like my lecturing (kidding, though I have jumped on a few chairs in the past, and used some off color humor). I started at City in the summer of 1990, with Gwyn Enright's Eng Comp 101 (heard she teaches some online courses now). Were you there, then, Fishy? I was 19, and had not been in school (to study) since sixth grade, but it felt like home. Still have a paper or two written for that class--funny to look back at the first essays you ever wrote.

I used to hang out with the forty-something crowd, most of them studying to be drug and alcohol addiction counselors. I remember a funny older guy giving a speech in Health class, and starting it off with the words "Bin there! Dun that!" :)

Least favorite? The heavyset guy with a ponytail who taught art history--Doug Daillard. What a dork--a grating, dumbed down cynic who treated anyone's appreciation of art as naive. He went off in class once about how the Greeks were smelly dirty bastards who did not ever bathe. I raised my hand, and asked why then did they have elaborate bathing temples? And curette-tools for scraping the skin clean? I had a book on this stuff--he should have at least known about the architecture.

He turned red, puffed up like an old adder, and yelled at me to take my sophomoric attitude and get out of his class. I refused to leave, and repeated my question, which he ignored.

A month later I was moving to a new apartment, and the only thing left in the old place was the phone, which began to ring. It was Daillard, calling to apologize, and say that I was, of course, right--Greeks bathed frequently, unless they were on the battle field, he said-- lamely, I might add.

We had an old toad that taught a Wills and Trusts class, and I swear he knew NOTHING about the subjects. We would catch him in his office before class reading the case book! We ALL hated him. He was a former Dean and sitting through his class was pure torture.

I finally bought practice guides/summaries and self taught myself the two subjects. Man....his class was a crime against humanity.

"He turned red, puffed up like an old adder, and yelled at me to take my sophomoric attitude and get out of his class. I refused to leave, and repeated my question, which he ignored.

A month later I was moving to a new apartment, and the only thing left in the old place was the phone, which began to ring. It was Daillard, calling to apologize, and say that I was, of course, right--Greeks bathed frequently, unless they were on the battle field, he said-- lamely, I might add.

thanks SDaniels , i like reading what u say bout my writing .
magicsfive. i wonder if we have , i had a little job at Sears. i mopped and vaccumed. and raided the snackbar n candy counter . i also Alwaz had fresh batteries for my ghetto blaster and a fresh pair of dickies till i got fired . then i worked Mcds on 39th

AG, it was a travesty. It is one thing when these guys can't teach, and quite another when they can, but don't choose to because they are burned out. I can understand it now, having worked at a community college, but I really noticed it then, too. I went to City and Mesa, and saw an array of different coping mechanisms at work with instructors forced to teach the same classes over and over for years. Some drank, some went nuts and had public tantrums, some fawned over students who showed a little promise, while being cruel and dismissive to those there for "a-dolt education," some displayed a bone chilling cynicism about their fields of instruction, and some just sort of checked out mentally altogether, standing up and teaching like robots to a constantly recycling syllabus and set of outlines...I don't blame anyone for it--CCs can be so hard on people, and the English teachers have to deal with constantly growing classrooms full of EFL students who have no qualms about trying to purchase grades (there was, I believe, a scandal with this a few years ago).I still remember all of it, and have tried to take a lesson to stay fresh with whatever I'm teaching, and avoid falling prey to these defensive mechanisms when possible.

Some reminiscence for Fish: Besides LaRosa, I'd say Steve Bouscaren, the anthro teacher, and an older guy who taught sociology were the best. For creative writing at City, Thomas Larson, who writes covers for the Reader, was popular, though I never took his class.

Daniels, I've been a huge proponent of community colleges for a couple decades and still recommend that people avail themselves of the ones in California, but only because they're so cheap. QUALITY of instruction is another issue altogether.

I attended the Dallas CCD in the 80s, and Mesa CCD in Arizona in the 90s. Had great experiences in both states, with engaged and engaging instructors who obviously enjoyed teaching. I always said that they had better teachers and quality of instruction than I experienced at the university level.

This is not the case in California. I've come across more incompetence and outright dingbats out here than I'd care to recount this morning. Just unbelievable.

I guess "you get what you pay for," right? Cali's the cheapest in the nation, if I'm not mistaken.

I should add to my banal observations, though:--There are many dedicated CC instructors out there, whose talents happen to lie in teaching rather than researching and publishing--just as there are brilliant profs at uni who can't teach for toffee, as my nana would say--and who teach as though the classroom were an annoying little hive of bees they are trying to avoid. Oh, the stories I could tell about uni profs :)

I guess "you get what you pay for," right? Cali's the cheapest in the nation, if I'm not mistaken.

By antigeekess

Your ignorance is showing again.

The cost to fund a CA college class (in either the CC, CSU or UC System) is MORE than anywhere else in the nation. So saying CA is "the cheapest in the nation" or "you get what you pay for," is the height of ignorance.

The only difference here in CA is the TAXPAYER subsidizes the students here, while in other states the state kicks in very little to subsidize the education. But make no msitake about it-the costs for these classes are MORE than any other state.

You mean the thought of college depresses you? It only depresses me when I'm not doing what I'm supposed to do with college. It changed my life the way religion changes many people's lives--except positively, with knowledge and brain cell expansion involved :)

It depresses me because I've been told that I have a beautiful voice. I'm a child of the 80s. I LOVED the radio during my childhood and early teen years. I always wanted to be a DJ but unfortunetely,corporations have killed ever DJ save for a few. I'd be a ctoss between Wolfman Jack and Howard Stern. This is what I'm refering to,SD

I'd have to go to college first and that depresses me because I'd just wasting money. The air checks and comraderie of the old days are gone and that's a shame. I HATE radio nowdays. It's so sterile and sanitized for your protection. It sucks.

No you wouldn't, dude. Not for freakin' community radio! They'll let just about anybody amble in there. I don't think it exists, in SD, but it sure does in more rural areas. One of my co-workers is an alcoholic idiot that stinks like a billy goat, and he's supposed to be getting a timeslot shortly somewhere up here -- somewhere like Monte Rio, Sebastopol, or something. No pay, of course. Community radio is a volunteer thingy.

Clear Channel and Infinity Broadcasting don't rule the world yet. They just think they do. :)

Math, dreck. Remedial, at best. Start at Math 54, and work up from there. LOL!

By Fish

Funny you say that about math. I never had good math teachers, and for some reason the schools LOVE to put 50-100 kids in math classes at college. The is why I always thought math was way over rated (I still think that today). There was always a heavy emphasis on both math and English. The difference is this-you use English everyday-and I mean everyday. You speak with people several times everyday and you write-as here- several times per day also. So the need for English is a given.

How many times a day do you use an algebraic equation? How many times have you used an algebraic equation since HS? Probabl never- unless you are an engineer. So I stand behind the fact that math is highly over emphasized in HS. Unless you're going on to college and studying a math related science then there is no need for any of the math classes.

By SurfPuppy619 12:29 p.m., Oct 3, 2009

Not sure if I agree with you, SP. I think the reason they make us take so many math classes to get our degree is to show that we can master logical thinking. As I recall you could substitute another course class for math (think it was a philosophy or some sort of humanities), SD will correct me if I'm wrong, but it was basically a logic class. With me it was a lost cause! I swear, it's a good thing I got fingers and toes or I couldn't balance my checkbook! Oh wait ...

the FCC r lying bastards who bow down to the big boys even when the station licences r meant only for the small frys with 1000 watt to 6000 watt FM stations...they gobble them up at auction then they only use them as transponder

Radio over the cable is possible

i did 4 years of DJing in a small town behind the community calender to 5 small towns in North Central Oregon over the cable

about 4000 listeners

my favorite song is by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers...it was my shows theme song..."The Last DJ"

I could not disagree with you more, surfpuppy, when it comes to the value of advanced mathamatical skills.
I know from personal experience that it would be nearly impossible to "adjust" a corporate ledger or "clean up" a balance sheet or "sanitize" a P&L without them.
Outstanding math skills are essential in today's world.
Any corporate CEO or CFO with tell you the same thing!!!!!

I could not disagree with you more, surfpuppy, when it comes to the value of advanced mathamatical skills.
I know from personal experience that it would be nearly impossible to "adjust" a corporate ledger or "clean up" a balance sheet or "sanitize" a P&L without them.
Outstanding math skills are essential in today's world.
Any corporate CEO or CFO with tell you the same thing!!!!!

By occumsrazor

Well, you're entitled to your opinion-but none of the items you listed equate to having anything more than basic math skills-you certainly do NOT use algebra, geometry, Calculus or any number of other math course that permeate the HS and college arena.

99% of todays CEO's of the Fortune 500 would not know even basic algebra equations, and they are hardly a staple of modern business.

My man's brother has a popular radio show--jazz. Through Richmond, Virginia, every Sunday night. I will ask him about possibilities for Pete to get into radio, and getting some bandwidth for one's own show :)

Fish wrote: "As I recall you could substitute another course class for math (think it was a philosophy or some sort of humanities), SD will correct me if I'm wrong, but it was basically a logic class."

I remember it this way too, Fishikins--and actually regret not finding the time to take that logic course--I just went with straight mathematics. The logic would have helped--as it has been suggested about me, who never has 'anything' of that sort to bring to the table :)

However, the best (and only one I can recall) fart joke he did was when Divine, in competition for the title of "Filthiest Person Alive," goes into a store, after eating a bunch of gaseous foods. She makes sure to let one rip at each aisle before stealing a large hunk of cow by shoving it up her, um, skirt.